Six girls (Karen Cardenas, Teresa Cardenas, Sarena Gerber, Madison Higdon, Greta Schrag, and Ainsley Shaw) traveled to the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired (ISVI) with Gloria Yoder for interterm. Students had the chance to discover what it would be like to be visually impaired by wearing special goggles and maneuvering around the halls and outdoors with canes. They observed many classes and spent time doing activities such as swimming, playing bingo, baking cookies, singing, making crafts and just hanging out together with the ISVI students. It was eye opening to realize how competent these students are in overcoming their vision disability to become independent and it was fun to become friends with them.

Organizing books

Service projects for the school were sorting toys for ISVI’s Day Care and organizing braille books in the library according to theme. The group also toured the School for the Deaf, located across town, and noted the differences in education for the deaf and the visually impaired. On Monday a stop was made in Hannibal, MO to see the Mark Twain Museum and Cave before arriving at ISVI in the evening. One of Mark Twain’s quotes, “kindness in the language the deaf can hear and the blind can see”, was very appropriate. On Friday the group traveled east to Springfield, IL to visit the impressive Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and the Lincoln family home and tomb before returning home.